Eastern North Atlantic from France to Senegal, including Azores, Madeira, Canaries and offshore seamounts, western Mediterranean (individual stragglers as far north as Iceland and east to Black Sea), off South Africa from Cape Frio to Agulhas Bank, including northern Walvis Ridge, seamounts in southern Indian Ocean along 30 to 35°S, Australia from New South Wales to southern West Australia, and New Zealand. A doubtful record from Cape San Lucas, Mexico (Rosenblatt and Wilson, 1987).

Habitat and Biology

Benthopelagicon continental shelf, along its edge and upper slope down to 400 m (600 m in Australia), usually over sandy and muddy bottoms from 100 to 250 m (over 300 m in Australia).Migrates into midwater at night. Occasionally found inshore in upwelling of deep water when it appears at surface. Schooling species.Feeds on crustaceans, small squid and fish. In the southern East Atlantic the most important forage items are Euphausia hanseni, E. luceus, Pasiphaea semispinosa, Sergesthes spp., Todaropsis eblanae, Engraulis capensis, Etrumeus teres, Sardinops ocellata, Maurolicus muelleri, Symbolophorus humbolti, Diaphus dumerili, Lampanyctodes hectoris, Chlorophthalmus sp. and Scomber japonicus (Mikhailin, 1978).Attains length of 125 cm at 9 years of age in southern East Atlantic and 160 cm at age of 13 years in northern East Atlantic (Mikhailin, 1976a).Spawns from end of winter to early spring off North African coast (Wheeler, 1969) and spring to autumn in New Zealand waters (Robertson, 1980).

Size

Maximum 205 cm standard length and about 8 kg weight in eastern North Atlantic, usually 100 to 135 cm and 1.0 to 2.3 kg.

Interest to Fisheries

Important commercial fish species in the eastern North Atlantic, mainly off Portugal and Morocco. Also caught by trawls off Namibia and New Zealand. World annual catches varied in 1985 to 1990 from 7 839 to 21 748 t (FAO, 1992).Flesh excellent.The total catch reported for this species to FAO for 1999 was 11 990 t. The countries with the largest catches were Portugal (2 966 t) and New Zealand (2 638 t).

Local Names

AUSTRALIA :
Southern frostfish .

FRANCE :
Sabre .

GERMANY :
Degenfisch .

GREECE :
Spadopsaro .

ITALY :
Pesce sciabola .

MALTA :
Fjamma .

NEW ZEALAND :
Scabbard fish ,
Frostfish .

PORTUGAL :
Espada branca .

RUSSIA :
Lepidop .

SPAIN :
Espadiella .

SOUTH AFRICA :
Bottersnoek ,
Buttersnoek .

UK :
Frostfish ,
Scabbard fish .

YUGOSLAVIA :
Zmijicnjak repas .

Remarks

Comparisons of populations of the main distributional areas, that is, the eastern North Atlantic-Mediterranean, South Africa, southern Indian Ocean and Australia-New Zealand, have never been based on adequate material. However, samples from southwest Africa (304 specimens) and the Azores (102 specimens) differ significantly in dorsal-fin pigmentation (see above) and meristic characters (Mikhailin, 1977). Surprisingly, Mikhailin's samples (if they were not mislabelled) from Gettysburg Seamount (36°22'N, 117deg;37'W) agree with the southern population in vertebral and dorsal counts. Morphometric studies of L. caudatus require further elaboration.